In these roles, during 1944 she was involved in the Marshalls operation in January-February, attacks on Central Pacific targets through the late winter and spring, the Marianas invasion and Battle of Philippine Sea in June, and Western Pacific carrier strikes in November and December. This began a pattern of operations for her that lasted for the rest of World War II: serving in the anti-aircraft screen of aircraft carrier task forces and occasionally using her heavy guns to bombard Japanese-held islands. In November 1943, North Carolina assisted in capturing enemy positions in the Gilbert Islands.

She was damaged by a Japanese submarine torpedo on 15 September, in an attack that also fatally damaged USS Wasp (CV-7), but returned to the Solomons combat zone after a few months' repairs. She took part in the Guadalcanal campaign during the rest of that year and some of 1943, covering the initial landings there and participating in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942. Following over a year of prolonged shakedown and training cruises in the Atlantic area, North Carolina went to the Pacific in June 1942. When commissioned in April 1941, she was the first new battleship to join the fleet in nearly two decades. USS North Carolina, lead ship of a class of 35,000-ton battleships, was built at the New York Navy Yard.

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